The research enterprise at the Department of Surgery has demonstrated remarkable growth over the last decade. In 2006, our department had negligible National Institutes of Health funding, and was ranked 104th in the nation. By 2016, we had increased to $5.8 million in funding and had a national rank of 18.

As part of our collective goal to make Cedars-Sinai care more affordable, many different departments have started re-examining how they do things. They’re finding opportunities to streamline processes, making things simpler and easier for our patients and each other, and in turn reducing unnecessary costs.

Significant challenges still face many transgender patients. Aside from discriminatory practices and a lack of constitutional protections, this circumstance has come to the forefront of societal awareness in recent years. A large number of transgender and gender-nonconforming patients suffer from a clinical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

An executive at Cedars-Sinai for ten years, Jennifer Blaha has been promoted to vice president of Operations, while Clare T. Lee has been named the organization's vice president of Professional and Support Services.

After nearly 20 years as a surgical center and home to Cedars-Sinai's Saul and Joyce Brandman Breast Center—A Project of Women's Guild, the building at 310 N. San Vicente Blvd. will begin the transformation into a fully dedicated breast cancer treatment facility at the end of this month. Surgeries will shift to the Medical Center and, in March, the Breast Center will relocate to an interim space as a complete renovation of the 310 Building commences.

Stop the Bleed is a free class now offered by Cedars-Sinai for its employees and the general public. The program was originally created in wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, when it was learned that uncontrolled bleeding led to many deaths. The next class at Cedars-Sinai is slated for Wednesday, Feb. 7.

When the smilodon, or saber-toothed cat, roamed what is now Wilshire Boulevard more than 12,000 years ago, did the predator hunt alone or in packs? If hips don't lie, Robert Klapper, MD, co-director of the Joint Replacement Program at Cedars-Sinai, may have the answer to a long-debated question among paleontologists. Working with the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, Klapper brought the best practices of medical diagnostics to bear on the saber-toothed cat in an effort to develop a clearer understanding of how the prehistoric animal lived.

With a new state law that now allows for the use of non-medical use of marijuana, Cedars-Sinai officials are reminding staff that the organization's longstanding policy of a drug- and alcohol-free workplace remains in effect. As of Jan. 1, Prop. 64, also known as the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), allows the sale of non-medical marijuana through stores licensed by the state to individuals 21 years old and older.

Under revised rules from the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, all Cedars-Sinai employees will be required to have completed workplace violence training by April 1. Cedars-Sinai’s Environmental Health and Safety division is finalizing the learning modules, and employees should be receiving notifications regarding the training soon.

The Molecular Pathology laboratory at Cedars-Sinai has developed a set of focused, DNA next-generation sequencing panels that can rapidly scan tissue samples for potentially treatable mutations in a variety of cancers. These panels are available to Cedars-Sinai physicians to help them design more effective therapies.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is requiring a new class warning and other safety measures for all gadolinium-based contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging because of concerns about gadolinium remaining in patients' bodies, including the brain, for months to years. The FDA also is removing its most prominent warning about asthma-related death from the drug labels of medicines that contain both an inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting beta agonists.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is requiring safety labeling changes for prescription cough and cold medicines containing codeine or hydrocodone in an effort to limit the use of these products to adults. Extensive review has shown that the risks of the medicines outweigh their benefits in children younger than 18. The FDA also is asking healthcare professionals to be vigilant for signs of hypersensitivity or anaphylaxis in patients receiving Varubi (rolapitant) injectable emulsion.

The Core laboratories in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine will update its Abbott chemistry test methods beginning Tuesday, Jan. 30. The new methods replace the former ones performed by Roche and Beckman. Please note new reference ranges (highlighted in yellow) and biases between methods.

Patients who recently have taken biotin can exhibit false low or high results to a host of common tests, including thyroid tests, hormones, cardiac markers and others. The Core laboratories in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, for the most part, do not use immunoassays that suffer from this potential interference. However, not all Cedars-Sinai patients have their samples run in our labs. As such, clinicians should be aware of the potential for biotin interference with immunoassays.

The Circle of Friends program honored 346 people in December. Circle of Friends allows grateful patients to make a donation in honor of the physicians, nurses, caregivers and others who have made a difference during their time at Cedars-Sinai.